It was a mixed bag of results for India at the Paris Olympics. India’s expectations may multiply manifold from one Games to the other, but the athletes were unable to keep pace with their performances. It appeared that bronze was the new gold so far as India at the Olympics goes as a haul of five bronze medals bolstered one silver medal.
India’s team of 117 athletes, with 140 support staff, did not return with even one gold medal from Paris, but that was because Neeraj Chopra, who had provided Indian sport with its finest breakthrough moment in Tokyo with the javelin gold, came off second best this time, beaten by his Pakistan friend Arshad Nadeem with an Olympic record throw of 92.97m. India’s greatest hope in the 2024 Games for a repeat gold was undone on a day of five foul throws and one legitimate effort which was sufficient for Chopra to win the silver.
Winning a medal in successive Olympics is a good performance, but heightened anticipation around the farmer’s son from Haryana was such it felt like Neeraj had fallen short of expectations. The Indian hockey team kept its appointment with a medal, its second in a successive Olympics after a 41-year wait between Moscow 1980 and Tokyo 2020. This was again a creditable performance, more so because the team was desperately unlucky to see Germany convert a late chance fortuitously with Marco Miltkau’s stick in the right place at the right moment to deflect the ball into goal and relegate India to a bronze medal match.